This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. Autopsies of children who have died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) have identified deficits of the carotid body and the carotid arteries as one of the potential causative factors in their deaths. Likewise, epidemiological studies have identified prenatal ethanol exposure as another component involved in a certain subset of cases of SIDS. Finally, experiments from our laboratory have demonstrated ethanol-induced apoptotic cell death in regions of the developing mouse embryo that are crucial to the proper development of both the carotid body and carotid arteries. The experiments proposed here will test the hypotheses that early gestional ethanol exposure will result in hypoplasia of the carotid body, deficits in the normal respiratory response to hypoxia and abnormal vasculature of the head and neck, particularly the carotid arteries and their proximal branches.